US sales: November 2016, brands

US car sales were 1,378,330 in November, over a little over 10,000 units more than in October. More importantly, however, this marked a 3.6 percent increase on November 2015, the first monthly increase since July 2016. The higher demand was mainly driven by two factors: higher incentives offered by carmakers, and strong demand for trucks. Overall, truck sales rose 8.6 percent compared to 2015, while car sales fell by 3.9 percent. This performance also marked a return to positive year-to-date growth for the market, though with sales in 2016 up by only 0.1 percent compared to 2015 it’s anyone’s guess whether 2016 will be a new record year for the industry, or whether that distinction will remain with 2015.

Highlights:

  • Chevrolet enjoyed a healthy 8.1 percent rise in sales, though it had to relinquish the top spot it grabbed in October as market-leader Ford returned to positive growth after a four-month sales slide
  • The other top 5 all enjoyed strong sales growth, particularly fourth-placed Honda (7.9 percent) and fifth-placed Nissan (8.0 percent)
  • Woes at Jeep continued as sales slumped by 12.3 percent, the first double-digit sales fall for the brand in a long time
  • In fact, Jeep was the only brand which saw sales fall in the top 10, with double-digit sales growth being recorded by eight-placed Kia (sales up 15.3 percent), ninth-placed Subaru (sales up 11.4 percent) and tenth-placed GMC (sales up 14.1 percent)
  • Things at FCA are looking decidedly gloomy: overall sales are down 14.1 percent due to poor performance by JeepDodge (sales down 20.7 percent), Chrysler (sales down 46.8 percent) and Fiat (sales down by 14.5 percent), with the only bright-spots being the ever-continuing good performance at Ram (sales up 12.0 percent) and, to a small extent, Maserati (sales up 27.3 percent)
  • One brand that should be very happy with its November performance is VW, whose sales rose by 24.2 percent, almost returning it to its pre-dieselgate sales result in November 2014, when it sold only around 2,000 care more than it did this year – not bad for a tarnished brand offering a range of rapidly-aging cars
  • Further good news for the VAG group came as Audi extended its streak of sales increases to 85 months, with its 2.5 percent growth rate higher than its closest luxury competitors: the 0.3 percent rise in sales at Mercedes-Benz, the 1.0 percent drop at Lexus, the 5.1 percent drop at Acura or the huge 18.2 percent sales fall at BMW
  • The smaller luxury brands did better: sales were up by 3.6 percent at Infiniti, 19.1 percent at Lincoln, 11.9 percent at Volvo, 23.9 percent at Porsche, 105.9 percent at Bentley and 217.5 percent at Jaguar

Brand ranking November 2016

Monthly YTD
# Model Nov’16 Nov’15 Δ # 2016 2015 Δ
a1 Ford 187,012 178,971 4.5% a1 2,267,839 2,250,552 0.8%
a2 (1) Chevrolet 169,675 156,907 8.1% a2 1,895,607 1,909,839 -0.7%
a3 (1) Toyota 168,425 158,475 6.3% a3 1,845,557 1,890,730 -2.4%
a4 Honda 111,308 103,197 7.9% a4 1,327,069 1,256,635 5.6%
a5 Nissan 103,024 95,389 8.0% a5 1,298,412 1,217,151 6.7%
a6 Jeep 67,285 76,689 -12.3% a6 839,433 775,136 8.3%
a7 Hyundai 65,507 60,007 9.2% a7 712,205 702,094 1.4%
a8 (1) Kia 52,504 45,553 15.3% a8 592,891 563,281 5.3%
a9 (1) Subaru 51,308 46,070 11.4% a9 548,470 521,175 5.2%
b10 GMC 49,113 43,039 14.1% b11 (1) 482,803 495,150 -2.5%
b11 (1) Ram 42,511 37,952 12.0% b10 (2) 486,910 432,128 12.7%
b12 (1) Dodge 34,075 42,955 -20.7% b12 (1) 472,106 475,163 -0.6%
b13 Mercedes-Benz 32,927 32,813 0.3% b13 338,081 332,858 1.6%
b14 (3) VW 29,672 23,882 24.2% b15 (1) 280,749 314,162 -10.6%
b15 Lexus 29,050 29,340 -1.0% b14 (2) 289,143 299,671 -3.5%
b16 (2) BMW 26,189 32,003 -18.2% b16 (1) 280,177 312,571 -10.4%
b17 (1) Mazda 22,041 22,732 -3.0% b17 (1) 266,879 287,505 -7.2%
b18 (2) Buick 18,530 15,960 16.1% b19 209,293 199,816 4.7%
b19 Audi 17,118 16,700 2.5% b20 186,735 181,637 2.8%
b20 (1) Cadillac 15,326 13,390 14.5% b21 (1) 150,724 153,587 -1.9%
b21 (5) Chrysler 14,518 27,275 -46.8% b18 (1) 223,187 294,031 -24.1%
b22 (1) Infiniti 12,112 11,694 3.6% b23 120,325 117,916 2.0%
b23 (1) Acura 11,616 12,244 -5.1% b22 (1) 142,003 158,827 -10.6%
b24 Lincoln 9,429 7,918 19.1% b24 97,935 89,519 9.4%
b25 Volvo 7,723 6,902 11.9% b26 75,382 61,667 22.2%
b26 Mitsubishi 6,896 6,772 1.8% b25 87,882 85,843 2.4%
b27 Land Rover 5,659 6,539 -13.5% b27 66,337 61,402 8.0%
b28 Porsche 5,513 4,450 23.9% b29 50,169 47,775 5.0%
b29 Mini 4,507 4,444 1.4% b30 (2) 47,691 53,846 -11.4%
b30 (4) Jaguar 3,381 1,065 217.5% b32 (1) 27,528 13,282 107.3%
b31 (1) Fiat 2,415 2,826 -14.5% b31 (1) 30,578 38,200 -20.0%
b32 (1) Tesla 2,250 2,156 4.4% b33 (1) 24,475 22,411 9.2%
b33 Maserati 1,380 1,084 27.3% b34 10,836 10,259 5.6%
b34 (1) Smart 563 662 -15.0% b35 5,012 6,752 -25.8%
b35 (1) Bentley 387 188 105.9% b36 2,206 2,084 5.9%
b36 (4) Scion 170 1,702 -90.0% b28 (3) 50,576 37,884 33.5%
b37 Rolls-Royce 102 99 3.0% b37 1,118 1,079 3.6%
b38 Lamborghini 86 84 2.4% b38 946 924 2.4%
b39 Alfa Romeo 23 34 -32.4% b39 468 599 -21.9%
  1. About the sudden rise of VW, it’s too easy to state things “aren’t bad” and “they should be ecstatic”, because this result was achieved 100% artifically. VW uses incentives like 1.000 dollar discount for repeat VW buyers (e.g. Jetta, Passat), In addition, during the fall they always run the ‘Sign then Drive’ campaign which means $0 down payment, $0 security deposit and no first-month payment.

    I mean let’s be realistic, a mainstream brand like VW shouldn’t perform YTD on the same level or worse than Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus in one of the biggest car markets in the world. USA and VW simply don’t go together and things are still bad. Maybe the Atlas can do some damage, but I think American customer prefer large SUVs from American and Asian brands. It’s a cultural issue.

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